Last week I wrote about Algorithms, and how they can be used to master skills that can be used every day. Today I'm talking about the opposite end of logic and reason.
par·a·dox
ˈperəˌdäks/
noun
- a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory."a potentially serious conflict between quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity known as the information paradox"
- a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true."in a paradox, he has discovered that stepping back from his job has increased the rewards he gleans from it"
synonyms: contradiction, contradiction in terms, self-contradiction, inconsistency, incongruity;More
- a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities."the mingling of deciduous trees with elements of desert flora forms a fascinating ecological paradox"
A paradox works both ways: A seemingly logical situation that ends up appearing absurd when you look "deeper", or a seemingly illogical or absurd statement that ends up making sense when examined closely. Sometimes both at the same time (which is in and of itself a paradox.)
One of the most easily recognized paradoxes used in fiction is the time-traveler's paradox. It works out in many ways.
In the Terminator storyline John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother before John is born. Kyle ends up becoming John's father.
Would John Connor have existed if he had not sent Kyle back in time?
Variations include going back in time to give Shakespeare a full copy of his published writings before he wrote them, or going back in time to stop an event, which if successful renders the need to go back in time irrelevant, meaning the time traveler does not go back in time, which means the event ends up happening, prompting the traveler to go back in time to fix it . . . etc.
M.C. Escher based his career off of paradoxical drawings.
http://www.mcescher.com/
Bach even wrote a canon called the "endlessly rising canon" which is a musical paradox. (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StrangeLoop.html)
In real-life science, paradoxes are a part of quantum mechanics every day. They've been shown to be so consistent that computer chips and cell phones are designed around them, but yet they have never been resolved. They are still being studied, but the results are accepted and used.
Schrodinger's Cat is probably the most famous (if most misunderstood) quantum mechanics paradox. The most intriguing to me is the wave-particle paradox. The famous double-slit experiment and the experiments it inspired produce a whole host of paradoxes, including a scientific reexamination of the time-traveler's paradox referenced above!
If you want to really stretch your brain, look up explanations of the half-integer-spin particles called "fermions." (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/spinc.html). We all know about electrons, protons and neutrons, right? If you spin any one of those particles 360 degrees, they won't look the same. You have to spin them twice (720 degrees) before they end up back where they started. All atoms are made up of fermions which are physical paradoxes. You are made up of atoms. Everything is. You are a walking paradox.
You are a logical contradiction.
Light is simultaneously an energy wave, and a bunch of particles. Not part wave and part particle, but it behaves with properties of both waves and particles at the same time.
Time doesn't travel in they way we think it does, it is relative to your perspective. Einstein's E=mc^2 is the mathematical formula representing the paradoxical nature of time.
In fact, most things we accept as "true" are paradoxes.
So science, philosophy, art, music, and even common sense rely on paradoxes to function.
God is a paradox. Why do people who base so many beliefs on science, knowing it's full of paradoxes, dismiss the idea of God simply because the idea of an all-powerful God is paradoxical?
Some would say that the concept of God is "self-contradictory" and so it is illogical, but how is that different from a paradox?
"Can God make a rock so big he can't move it?" That's not an illogical question -- that's a paradox.
People say "the Bible is full of contradictions." Is it? Then why do so many scholars throughout history (who can plainly distinguish contradictions) say it's not? Is it just that the Bible is full of paradoxes?
The very concept of a Bible (a series of books inspired by God, but written by men, over the course of thousands of years to write a single story) is a paradox. If God wrote it, shouldn't it be perfect? But if men wrote it, it can contain imperfections (estimates instead of actual numbers, discrepancies in geographical descriptions, translation issues, etc.) Yet the imperfections are a testament to the authenticity of the process of the writing.
If it was too perfect, we would dismiss it as a forgery by just a small group of people, but if it's not perfect, we dismiss it as being made up by a small group of people, not God.
The very idea of a Bible is a paradox.
If God knows everything, does he know the future? If he does, can the future change? Am I a robot, or do I truly have free will?
These are all paradoxes. And by being wonderful paradoxes, they have great company in science, art, math, music, and philosophy.
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